We are pleased to announce that those backing up with MongoDB Management Service can now set a custom snapshot schedule and retention policy, giving you greater flexibility in your backup strategy and control of costs. Since we debuted our online backup service for MongoDB, this has been the most widely requested feature.
What is the configurable snapshot schedule and retention feature?
In MMS, you can restore a stored snapshot or, for replica sets, create a custom snapshot of a point-in-time by applying oplog data.
By default, MMS takes snapshots of your data every 6 hours. After that, the snapshots are retained according to a standard data storage policy (hourly snapshots stored for 2 days, daily snapshots stored for a week, the weekly snapshots stored for a month, monthly snapshots stored for a year).
With this new feature, you can now customize both the frequency of the snapshots captured and the length of time that the snapshots are retained.
What’s the use case for this feature?
Configurable frequency allows you to tune your backup strategy based on your requirements. For example, for the most mission critical data you may want to retain more frequent snapshots. In the event of a “data emergency,” you’ll be able to restore with a more recent, stored snapshot or more quickly create a custom, point-in-time snapshot. For less critical data (e.g. log data), you may not require such frequent snapshots or need to retain as many copies of the backup.
In addition, this new feature gives you greater control over the costs of using backup. MMS is priced based on a combination of snapshot storage and oplog processing. By adjusting your retention policy to shorter time periods, you can manipulate your snapshot storage costs. You can also tune costs by excluding non-critical databases and collections.
How can I use it ?
To adjust your snapshot schedule and retention, go to the Backup tab in MMS and then the Sharded Cluster Status or Replica Set Status page. Click on the gear. From there, you’ll see an option to Edit Snapshot Schedule. This feature is available after you’ve completed an initial sync to MongoDB’s datacenters.
Backing up MongoDB is easy with MMS. Start by creating an account at mms.mongodb.com.